Within the scope of the illustrative embodiments a gate-controlled semiconductor device is a device in which a gate structure controls a flow of electrons through a channel between a source structure and a drain structure. A transistor is a non-limiting example of a gate-controlled semiconductor device, where applying a potential to the gate causes electrical current to flow from a source end of the transistor to a drain end of the transistor.
A Field Effect Transistor (FET) is a specific type of transistor. A Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) is a FET fabricated using specific materials, techniques, and is suitable as a transistor for certain uses. A FET controls the electrical conductivity between a source of electric current (source) and a destination of the electrical current (drain). The FET uses a gate structure to create an electric field, which controls the shape and consequently the electrical conductivity of a channel between the source and the drain. The channel is a charge carrier pathway constructed using a semiconductor material.
As semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) or chips become smaller, stacked gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheets, which are two-dimensional nanostructures with a thickness range on the order of 1 to 100 nanometers, are increasingly used to form nanosheet FETs. In GAA devices the gate wraps the entire perimeter of the channel. Due to the quantum confinement of the carriers, these FETs offer excellent short channel control, suitable for the next generation FETs, when the channel length is less than 20 nm.